News & facts, re-imagined for kids

Mr. Balloon Captains Project Loon

Image Credit: Flickr User c1ssou, via CC

Is Mr. Balloon a character from the famous cartoon show Looney tunes?

Nope!

Project loon is a bunch of 30 balloons flying over New Zealand’s south island. This is a project started by Google, to provide faster internet access to remote areas by a balloon network. This world is going to be far better connected with this.

The balloon network has to connect to a special Internet antenna that is attached to buildings below.

This project uses some algorithms to determine where the balloons should move, and use the wind to reach their destinations. An algorithm is a step by step instructions to reach a valid solution. In this case the solution is the destination where the balloon needs to be.